Europe, Boring Until it's Not

[TheReal_ND]

[SuburbanFarmer]

[ssu]

What we hasn't been covered here (or on the old DCF, I guess) was the coup and assassination attempt in Montenegro by people close links to Serbian and Russian nationalist... and perhaps the Russian intelligence services. Which uh, didn't go anywhere.

The suspected coup plotters being arrested:

Russian agents attempted to foment a coup on Oct. 16, when parliamentary elections were being held. The idea was that armed men would seize the parliament building and assassinate then-Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, who has led his country’s bid for NATO membership. Some 20 Serbians and Montenegrins were arrested for participating in the plot. One, a notorious Serbian mercenary, has told authorities of visiting Moscow to discuss the coup and receiving $200,000 to carry it out, according to a report in the New York Times.

See WP article: Beware: The Russian bear is getting bolder.

Furthermore, from the one who talked...

Mr. Sindjelic’s account of the events includes a visit to Moscow in September to plan the operation and details of the encrypted phones he was asked to use to avoid eavesdropping. He has not directly implicated any Russian officials but has raised questions about the links between state agencies and a murky network of Russian nationalists active in the Balkans and in eastern Ukraine.

The Montenegrin authorities say two Russians carrying passports in the names of Eduard V. Shirikov and Vladimir N. Popov commanded the botched plot. But both men, who oversaw preparations for the operation from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, are back in Moscow, and it is unclear whether they were traveling under real or fake identities and for whom exactly they were working.
Continue

See Finger Pointed at Russians in Alleged Coup Plot in Montenegro

Now this is what a Serbian activist that would try a coup in neighbouring country should look like: Aleksandr Sindjelic (in Donbass or Crimea?).


Montenegro has been formally invited to NATO and the pro-NATO government won the elections.

Yep, the Balkans is the soft underbelly of Europe.

[TheReal_ND]

Cologne checks truck ban in city center
The Cologne police president, Jürgen Mathies, told the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger": "I am always concerned that there are imitators. There is nothing worse than saying that we could have done something and did not do it. "We were reacting to the Berlin assassination by tightening controls on the Christmas markets and roads as well as obstacles for trucks at sensitive points. "We are currently examining, in close consultation with the city, which vehicles are allowed to enter the inner city and where we want to prevent this," says Mathies. Policemen with machine guns and protective vests should provide additional security. A cancellation of Christmas markets was not an option. The Cologne Cathedral as a possible stopover point for Christmas or in the coming Silvesternacht is more strongly in the focus of the police moved, entrance controls before the services are currently being examined. Mathies: "I have the cathedral and the environment with all the implications that this great church brings with it." The preparations for the Cologne Silvesternacht would have little effect on the events in Berlin. "As a police we evaluate a situation every day new. We also do this with regard to New Year's Eve. At the moment I am very sure that in our preparations we have also very well thought of events that we do not want at all. "

http://www.bild.de/news/inland/polizei/ ... l#abcdefgh

Oh I am laffin

[ssu]

Wonder when they "invent" concrete barriers, nuke.





And just how happy people in traffic will be after that with chicanes to slalom through with their vehicles in city centers...

[TheReal_ND]

Lol ice + concrete blocks = fun

Woah. He's a big guy. Lifting that block by himself

[Montegriffo]

[TheReal_ND]

Memes are a dangerous thing Monte. Playing with fire.



https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=you ... xXSnikFe4o

Newsweek Reporter, Kurt Eichenwald & His Twitter-Induced Seizure Claim
The Daily Sh*t Show

[Kazmyr]

Memes are a dangerous thing Monte. Playing with fire.



https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=you ... xXSnikFe4o

Newsweek Reporter, Kurt Eichenwald & His Twitter-Induced Seizure Claim
The Daily Sh*t Show

[ssu]

Latest polls (assuming if people think anything of them) for the French election:

Francois Fillon 29%
Marine Le Pen 25%
Emmanuel Macron 18%
Jean-Luc Mélenchon 14%
(See Bloomberg article here)

Marine Le Pen having difficulty with raising money as French banks.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen does not have the funds she needs for her presidential election campaign next year, as banks continue to decline to lend to her National Front for political reasons, a senior party official said on Monday.

National Front Secretary General Nicolas Bay told Europe 1 radio he had sought a loan of about 27 million euros ($28 million) for the presidential and legislative campaigns next year "from among banking establishments in France, Europe and around the world." He said French banks were refusing to lend the party money. "That poses a problem of discrimination based on political opinions," he said.

See Reuters

Vlad gave a bit of money. Will that be enough?


And here's a French meme for Nuke:



In Germany the terrorist attack in Berlin has had the obvious impact on the political scene:

Populist party Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) has gained 2.5 percentage points in a poll after the truck attack in Berlin Monday. The poll by Insa and German tabloid Bild puts AfD at 15.5 percent nationally. The party has only reached that mark once before, in September. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) dropped 1.5 points to 31.5 percent. CDU’s coalition partner, the Social Democrats, fell by one point to 20.5 percent, which indicated many of the coalition’s voters turned to AfD after the attack.

Merkels nightmare before Christmas: